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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (38908)	2/11/1999 10:28:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

It's C-Cube or ESS........................... VCD players Super VCD brings new life to mature line Before the SVCD launch, many pundits were predicting the end of the VCD player. The response to the new format proved the forecasts untimely. The enthusiastic consumer takeup of SVCD, and the scramble of makers outside mainland China to produce SVCD players, has given new life to the industry. SVCD's keenest advocates include major mainland companies such as Shenzhen SAST Electronics Co. Ltd. The firm has come up with a range of SVCD players, which it is further improving, according to marketing manager Su Zhao-ge. Some companies in the Hong Kong SAR are also stepping up to SVCD. Yanion Co. Ltd believes the VCD player will remain viable in the market for the next three years, and "that is why we are upgrading our present models to SVCDs," said marketing director Sam Ho. Yanion's SVCD players have a resolution of 350 TV lines, significantly higher than the 250 lines offered by most VCD players, according to Ho. Both desktop and portable models are available for between $120 and $300 apiece, FOB Hong Kong. The SVD-J811, a portable model, is equipped with an LCD, full karaoke, volume and echo controls, two microphone jacks and a key changer. All the models are single-disc, except for model SVCD383K, a three-disc player/changer. Ho forecasts that Super VCD players will become a favorite purchase of middle-class consumers, as the DVD player remains an expensive form of home entertainment. Another Hong Kong maker, Wai Kai Electronics (HK) Ltd, has developed an SVCD model for release in the mainland China market. Having built-in shock protection, it is suitable for integration with a car A/V system. Wai Kai's marketing efforts, however, are concentrated on version 2.0 portable VCD players, says manager Francis Tai. The maker has added an advanced model to this range, the AW-1000. It supports NTSC and PAL output and gamma correction, providing digital karaoke and echo controls, last-level stage memory, an LCD, an OSD and remote operation. Dimensions are 193x151x62.5mm, and the unit FOB price is about $260. Produced using SMT lines, Wai Kai's VCD portables incorporate Philips deck mechanisms and Epson TFDs. Buyers can select between MPEG decoders from C-Cube and ESS Technology Inc. The maker response to Interactive VCD 3.0 is different. Few models are on the market, because makers say there aren't enough movie titles in supply to justify the additional higher expense.